Monday, April 23, 2012

If there were an annual “pot calling the kettle black”
award, the early frontrunner would have to be Kaitlyn Buss, Director of
Communications for the American Legislative Exchange Council, known more by its
acronym, ALEC.

About the many voices now complaining about ALEC’s habit of
mixing non-business issues such as loosening gun control laws and restricting
voters, Buss complains that they are “part
of a concerted effort of extremist groups that are hell bent on silencing
organizations that differ from them ideologically.”

Buss scores a twofer in the “pot calling the kettle black”
category, a variety of name-calling which is particularly twisted because not
only is the name-caller lying about the victim, she/he is using characteristics
that could apply to him/herself, i.e., the name caller. Thus, the liar accuses
someone else of lying and the closeted gay rants against gay culture.

The extremists to whom Buss refers include of course The
Coca Cola Company, PepsiCo, McDonald’s Corp. and software giant Intuit.The reason that these quite buttoned-down companies
have stopped supporting ALEC is because of the extremist laws LEC tries to pass
in states around the country. Like “Stand Your Ground” laws which extend the
“home is your castle” doctrine to anywhere people go, essentially saying that
if someone looks at you wrong,you can
legally shoot to kill. And in a democracy, what could be more extremist than
denying people the right to vote, which ALEC-sponsored laws have done or will
do in many states?

ALEC all but admitted that it had gone too far—which is the
standard working definition of extremism—when it said that it would stop
supporting voter ID and gun rights laws in state legislations.

But Buss is not only calling ALEC opponents a name that
applies to her organization, she also says that these opponents are trying to
do something that in fact ALEC has been trying to do: “silencing organizations that differ from them ideologically?”

What else do you call it when you write a law that makes it
harder to vote, knowing that it will negatively impact those ideologically
opposed to your view much more than it will harm those who favor your view? By
requiring an ID that virtually all of your supporters already have but many of
your opponents’ supporters don’t have, aren’t you trying to silence those who
differ from you? What silence is more deadly and evil than the silence that
comes from not having the right to vote?If you don’t believe me, ask some 80 or 90-year-old African-Americans
who have lived all their lived in Mississippi or Georgia.

Of course, Buss’ double-helix name-calling—blaming others
for being what her organization is and doing what it does—is part of the larger
deception by ALEC when it claims to do no lobbying and so should keep the tax
advantaged status of a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.Let’s turn to Merriam-Webster (with format
slightly modified) for the two standard definitions of lobbying: a) persons not members of a legislative body
and not holding government office who attempt to influence legislators or other
public officials through personal contact; b) a particular group of such
persons representing a special interest.

What ALEC does is write state legislation that it gives to
state legislators to introduce as potential new laws. That sure sounds to me
like “attempting to influence legislators.” The laws that ALEC writes—some very
long and complicated—are all supposed to express the point of view of business.
That’s why the ALEC laws that aren’t sops to moneyed special interests like the
National Rifle Association have to do with lowering taxes on businesses,
loosening regulations and making it harder to unionize. Now doesn’t that sound
just like “representing a special interest?”

There can be no doubt that ALEC’s activities should
disqualify it from claiming nonprofit status. But all that will do is raise the
price of playing. It won’t stop ALEC’s pernicious influence on state
legislatures everywhere, it just means that those who contribute to it won’t
get a tax break.

FYI: For the best explanation of how a small number of
ultra-wealthy corporate leaders and other individuals use organizations like
ALEC to control the process by which social and political changes occurs in the
United States, go to the “Who Rules America Now,” website
and especially the section of “The Class-Domination Theory of Power” by G. William
Domhoff titled “How
Government Policy Is Shaped From Outside Government.”

If it weren’t for the entertainment value, I’d be pleased that Texas Governor Rick Perry is foundering in the Republican presidential race. After all, Governor Perry, who is in an unprecedented fourth term as chief executive of the nation's second-largest state, still might get the Republican nomination for president. If that happens there’s no telling what the voters might be fooled into doing. Just look at how far George W. Bush got.